Maybe its the rainy/snowy/sleety cold weather. or maybe its just some of the food blogs rubbing off – but I have had a spate of cooking and baking in the last six weeks. 

Sunday I had to have some scones.  I searched and searched the web and found a recipe that looked good  (Thank you Epicurious.com)

Miniature cream scones with currants  [from Gourmet |  March 1990]

Scrumptious, not sweet (there is barely sugar in the dough but some on the top if you like), calls for cream but I used milk and butter instead since I didn't want to go buy some (next time).

The best in terms of rise and texture I have ever made – maybe it was the kneading? who knows, this is now my favorite recipe – can add stuff to it .  I omitted the currants and made them plain for this first time, will try cranberries and blueberries in the next batches.  Because of the low sugar content, these go with all foods – had one with my chili last night.

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Chili. I love chili.  Don't know when I started but know I have to have chili in the freezer/fridge.  I have tried a few recipes but the current favorite is … hmm, I have to figure out where I got it from.  Anyway, here is a photo

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Soup – (again on Sunday!)

Chickpea Soup with Spinach, Tomatoes, and Basil
Found this yummy recipe and had everything at hand (!) and was craving some spinach too!  I changed things a bit. from the recipe cause I had cans of Chickpeas not dried.  And used up some frozen chopped spinach.  Also a little less stock/water so its a fairly thick soup .

I served it over fusilli pasta with parmesan grated on top.  Yum (oh and one of the scones too!)

Photo from Kalyn's Kitchen

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And what's cooking today?

A new recipe in "tribute" of the rainy and cold weather today and tonight.

Irish Beef Stew and Irish Soda Bread

Will report on how it goes.